Ive been learking around for awhile, I love DIY speaker cab and horn designs.

Any ways. Im planning a much needed up graded to my HT/loud speaker setup.

IM looking at the Yamaha HTR5990 or the Harman/Karon AVR 635.

I want good power for home theater and for music listing. I plan to run some BIG main speakers, a two way 15in and titanium horn and some 18in backloaded horns under them. The center channel Id like to voicematch so Ill use the same titanium horn and two 8s for mids.

I would obviously need a power amp for the subs, the HT amp would be plenty of power for rear speakers, possibly the center but probibly not the mains..

so It looks like I want:
Integrated HT amp for Center, and rears.
power amp for mains (500 watts ish)
power amp for subs (500 watts ish)

What do you think of the suggested HT amps?

It would be nice to put moneys into power amps rather then trendy $$$ processors that go obsolete within afew years. If I could find just a processor pre amp for the HT funciton and run all power amps that would be good too but I havent seen those. other then running it off a computer.

Hello electricashman I am using processor pre amp and amps that I built.
The processor is this one http://cgi.ebay.com/Outlaw-Model-950...QQcmdZViewItem
and it seems to work fine.
The amps that I use are 2 JLH 10 watt monos (front) and a Leach amp for the sub and center, Sumo for surrounds. A.D.S. for my speakers.
The Lexicons are said to be better but I believe that the lower priced Lexicons require the remote to operate.
S.M.

You can often find standalone processors like the Technics SH-AC500D on Ebay for reasonable prices. That unit does DTS, Dolby Digital, and Dolby Prologic (for 2-channel digital sources). It has 3 to 4 digital inputs (one input is shared between RCA and optical), and remote digital volume control. No video switching.
Stereophile's Guide to Home Theatre gave this unit (paired with a complementary Technics digital-ready receiver) a class B rating, for what that's worth. Processors haven't really changed much since digital arrived. There's no change to the bitstream for 6.1; the additional channels are just derived via simple analog circuits from the regular discrete rear channels. A couple of opamps will turn the SH-AC500D into a 6.1 box, should you feel the need.

As for power amps, what I have is an NAD2200 for the main front channels; it's a high-headroom amp so peak output must be something like 500 watts. I'm sure there's other "mid-fi" amps that would be as good or better, but this cost me less than $100 once I'd fixed it.

For powering subwoofers I suggest an inexpensive "pro" amp. The Behringer EP-2500 is the most power for the buck, or there's a ton of old Peavey's out there. But if money is less tight, then go for a better "pro" amp, something in the more than 1kw/channel range. Example: the Canadian-made Yorkville AP4040 or 4020 ('40 does 1200W/ch into 4 ohm loads, the '20 into 2 ohm loads), or if that isn't enough power, the 6040. But you may need to dedicate an electrical circuit, or have some heavier wiring put in. Two-speed fans on fan-cooled pro amps are usually very quiet, and rarely kick into high except during very hot weather or for extended bass pounding. However, you might prefer to mount the amps outside the room or in a separately ventilated closet, if your home theater is exceptionally quiet.

The Technics 500 can also be modded quite nicely if one cares to do so.

The 4 channel op-amps and the op amps (there are a few stereo units in it as well) in it are available as Burr-Brown units,and are obtainable (meaning they will actually send them) as samples from TI. It appears to be I/O on the opamps, meaning a double set.

The clock is cheap and remotely located. Redoing the clocking circuit can do wonders for the unit, and as it is using op amps - that means the PS for the digital chip is all critical, not just the clock (as the analog PS for the digital chip becomes critical - it's a source quality thing). Think about removing the muting resistors if you do not mind a of a bit of noise. That's a bit hardcore, but it works.

Id like more oppinions on processors that do have video switching, I have to train my wife and son to use it so having audio and video switching together would be a requirement.
2 video sources min
3 audio sources min

With the power amps fan cooled noise is an issue, what have you guys done for cooling. Im gonna make a rack and could make that rack control the air flow rather then just individual cooling fans. I figure it would be easier to make one quiet fan work for the rack then several fans at different speeds.

I bought afew years ago I bought a crown CE1000 for my elect guitar setup, it was a good deal, The Crown works for that since its all colored up and processed but I dont like the crown for any audio playback. It just dosent sound great, and I was not at all impressed with its power just runnign 4 12in guitar speakers. It has variable speed fans but when on, those fans would be too loud for use in my HT system.

I have no problem swaping some opamps on an amp with a good powersupply.

Originally posted by electricashman I found some good lookin Carver stuff.

Have you guys heard the Carver AV-405 5ch power amp for HT?

Yup great amp.

YOU shouldn't need 500 watts for a subwoofer that is a'lot of power. I think you would be happy with ? x 100 watts ( per channel ) for Home Theater.

I had a nice HK-av100 witch was 80 x 5 it was loud and clean. Me personally i like the idea of a nice pre-amp / decoder and separate amps. I had a set up with 3 x 2 channel amp's that worked really well.

The reason i oosted.. because i'm in the same boat to look around and see if i can do this. As i want to do ht again.